Hearts’ manager Craig Levein is loving his brush with the Juniors

Craig Levein gives instructions to his players at a training session. Picture: SNS.

Hearts take on the Junior side at Tynecastle with a place in the Scottish Cup quarter finals at stake and there will be no underestimating the Ayrshire giant-killers, who ousted high-flying Championship outfit Ayr United in the previous round.

Last weekend, exercising due diligence, the Hearts manager reacquainted himself with the world of Junior football as he made the most of a free Saturday to size up the shock troops but, as he watched them run out comfortable 7-0 winners, he had to deal with some close man-marking on the sidelines.

“I went to Petershill last week and it was brilliant,” said Levein. “I loved it. The punters were magic. There was a guy trying to put an Auchinleck scarf on me continually. He wouldn’t leave me alone. I ended up grabbing it and throwing it on the pitch.”

But it did not sour his afternoon, as he revelled in the sights and sounds of football in one of its rawest forms.

“They were really welcoming and some of the shouts are brilliant. But it was difficult to take anything from the game other than looking at the players and seeing their strengths and weaknesses, because there was a man sent off after 20 minutes or so. It was already looking like a one-sided match and that didn’t help.”

But it was an enjoyable trip down memory lane for the Hearts boss, who transitioned from boy to man as a young player in the Junior game, spending a couple of seasons at Lochore Welfare before signing for Cowdenbeath.

“I enjoyed playing Junior football when I played. I was only 16 at the time. In those days, even when I got to the Premier League, there weren’t as many cameras and a lot of things that happened in Junior football were still going on in senior football so you learned to watch out when the ball was at the other end of the park!”

High on the list of strengths he identified in tomorrow’s opponents was their winning mindset but that wasn’t their only attribute. “They are not accustomed to losing matches and I think that’s their biggest asset, their biggest threat,” Levein added.

“They have some good players, their defenders defended properly. They have a young lad, Gordon Pope, who was a kid at Dundee United when I was there and is a decent footballer. They had energy in midfield, [Jamie] Glasgow is a good tricky wide player and they have pace up front.

“I’m not taking this game lightly in any way, shape or form. Auchinleck are always dangerous. Where they are year in and year out in the league tells you that they find ways of winning. They found a way of winning against Ayr in the last round.

“I think they will be solid, resolute and will play with passion and energy. We will play a strong team. There are only three major competitions and this is one of them. I don’t want to weaken us and I don’t want to put out a team that says: ‘We don’t rate you’. That might give Tommy [Sloan, the Auchinleck manager] and his players something to stick up on the wall.”

One of the Hearts big hitters who will be utilised is Uche Ikpeazu, who made his long-awaited return from injury in midweek and Levein revealed that he is working on extending the Englishman’s contract as he seeks to build a core of the “right type” of people.

“I think it is his attitude more than anything that I’ve been pleased with,” he said of the popular 23-year-old who netted four goals in ten games for the club before he was sidelined with a foot injury. “I knew, looking at him, that he is a unit, can hold the ball up and he’s quicker than people think he is. But it’s his attitude we like. He’s the right type of person that I want at Hearts. We have extended contracts of others that fit that bill – Christophe Berra, John Souttar, Michael Smith – and I’m trying to sort something with Naisy [Steven Naismith] and twist Arnaud’s [Djoum] arm to stay.

“The key is having people who are serious about playing. Yes, they’ll have a laugh and a joke and help team spirit, but they are strong characters.”